Four Avantis pose at Speed Week : Bonneville 2006

[SBCA96]

Dave "Avanti Kid" Bloomberg sent me some pictures of his Bonneville

Avanti hauler and a few shots from Speedweek which I thought I would

share. I love the 4 Avantis together.

Here is the workhorse to get the Avanti to Bonneville :

Here is the salt rocket inside the trailer :

The four Avantis and Dave's email text edited for clarity :

No problem showing the four Avantis on the Studebaker WEB site. This is the first time that 4 Avantis actually raced at Bonneville. They were from left to right : Dan Wathen's Avanti II (Ford engine), Jim Davis' Avanti II (Chevy engine), Jim Lange's Avanti (Studebaker engine), and my Avanti (Studebaker engine). At the meet Lew Schucart from Avanti Owners magazine took some great pictures of the four Avantis together and will do a future article on them. - Dave

Picture of Jim Davis' Avanti II with the 408 CI Chevy engine :

Tom

[geojerry]

The Granatelli Bros. would be very proud of this Avanti turnout.

I understand his bro still has the R5 engine. Not sure what happened to the car.

Anybody know ?

[Gunslinger]

I understand the R-5 engine in the Due Cento was disassembled and its parts are unknown. I've never seen anything to the contrary of that.

I believe the car still exists and is owned by someone...who I don't know. After this many years it's probably been through a succession of owners so who knows what it looks like now compared to its appearance at Bonneville. I haven't seen anything which identifies the VIN of the Due Cento.

[r5duecento]

I understand the R-5 engine in the Due Cento was disassembled and its parts are unknown. I've never seen anything to the contrary of that.

I believe the car still exists and is owned by someone...who I don't know. After this many years it's probably been through a succession of owners so who knows what it looks like now compared to its appearance at Bonneville. I haven't seen anything which identifies the VIN of the Due Cento.

The car is presently owned by me, Richard Bennett, Irwin, Pa.. It was sold to Bill Burke of Peterson Publishing I believe in 1966 or 1967, who was a Bonneville veteran. He ran another Avanti for many years, starting with a Studebaker engine and followed by many other engine combinations and set several Land Speed Records. Bill purchased the Due Cento from Andy Granatelli and ran the car with non Studebaker engines in 1967 and 1968. I purchased the car from him in 1968 and am presently in the process of a ground up restoration. Fortunately, Bill did not do too much damage to the car, however he did cut the firewall out of it and repaint the car orange. It has been stripped to the bare fiberglass and will be redone exactly as it originally was. I also received all of the aerodynamic pieces with the car. The serial number of the Due Cento is EX2942 as it was the prototype Avanti build by the Engineering Department before the Avanti went into production. It has many unique features such as hand laid cloth seen on the underside since it was the first one made from a mold taken from the clay, fake dash, fake taillights and many more unusual features. The car as it is seen in "The Bonneville Record Holder" can be identified as the car not having any names, emblems or identification on the body (most of the scenes are of a production Avanti dubbed in for the promotional film - note production identification and lack of rollbar). This is the car in it's original form as run in 1962 when it set 29 speed records before being modified into the Due Cento for the 1963 runs when the #9 Avanti set the record. The "real deal" is shown in several shots, some of which are the shots with the timing officials as they turn their heads and you hear the loud wine of the Supercharger; at the end where Andy is photographed with the car and the beautiful shot at the extreme end where the car is shown in a misty shot screaming down the 'long black line'!

I have several pictures and magazine articles of the car at Bonneville, but am constantly searching for more items to assure that the car is done accurately. Some magazine pictures show many photographers, so there must be more stuff out there. Hopefully they have not all been destroyed. If anyone has anything, I would really appreciate hearing from you. The one thing that I really need and don't have is a picture of the top of the front fenders to see how and where the gold leaf stripe terminates on the windshield side. If anyone has any pictures, films or additional information, I would appreciate hearing from you. My e-mail address is rabennett3@hotmail.com and phone number is 724-864-5205.

Hope to have the Due Cento at an AOAI meet soon so that all may enjoy all the History!

Edited November 29, 2007 by r5duecento

[SBCA96]

Wow ... many have wondered where that car went! Good to hear from you.

Do you have any pictures of it currently? You might also sign onto the SDC

forum and the Racing Studebakers forums. They are more active then this.

http://www.studebakerdriversclub.com/sdc_forum/default.asp

http://racingstudebakers.com/stl-web/bulletin/bb/index.php

Tom

The car is presently owned by me, Richard Bennett, Irwin, Pa.. ... Hope to have the Due Cento at an AOAI meet soon so that all may enjoy all the History!